Heman Worship

1 Chronicles 15:16 David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. 17 So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel;. . .[who was] to sound bronze cymbals; 20 [Some] were to play harps according to Alamoth; 21 [some] were to lead with lyres according to the Sheminith. . . . 24 [and others] should blow the trumpets before the ark of God. . . . 28 So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the Lord with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres. 29 And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David dancing and rejoicing. . .
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Nehemiah 12:27 And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought the Levites . . . to celebrate the . . . with cymbals, harps, and lyres. 28 And the sons of the singers gathered together . . . 31 Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall and appointed two great choirs that gave thanks. One went to the south . . . 38 The other choir of those who gave thanks went to the north . . . and they came to a halt at the Gate of the Guard. 40 So both choirs of those who gave thanks stood in the house of God . . . 41 And the singers sang with Jezrahiah as their leader. 43 And they . . . rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. And the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
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I think its funny and wonderful that one of the worship leaders in David's kingdom was named Heman. The over the top masculinity of the 80's action figure is a comical, but not entirely innapropriate representative of the Old Testament singers who were warriors in their own right. For, worship is sometimes warfare. He-Man, apparently "the most powerful man in the universe" is of course a kind of archetypal hero. In the book of Nehemiah, one of my favorite stories is how they sent choirs up onto the wall to worship after they had completed contruction. The "joy of Jerusalem was heard far away". This is amazing, especially when you consider our own paradigm for worship, which is often timid and introverted. God forbid [ironically] if we should sing too loud and wake somebody up on a Sunday morning! My kids like to sing a song as prayer before meals: "Lord we thank thee, Lord we thank thee, Lord in heaven we thank thee." And then sometimes they will feel inspired to shout at the top of their lungs, "Praise Jesus!" as the grand finale. They did that in a restaurant once. It was awesome. Ransom, my son, was like He-Man on Nehemiah's wall. How's that for a strange quote!